


The Ninth Night of The Worm

by nocrimeinthearchive



Category: Hellboy (Comics)
Genre: Gen, also: a really big worm, and provided nothing much other than a couple of lines?, basically just a short one-shot thing, that time Kate went on a mission with hellboy?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2018-01-08 11:57:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1132369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocrimeinthearchive/pseuds/nocrimeinthearchive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This being a One-Shot in which Hellboy fights a Worm; in which Kate provides a Foil and a Sense of Bonhomie; in which there is a Castle; and in which there are many Words to expand upon those just written.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ninth Night of The Worm

_In the name of he who is called the Seventh Star (but in the East is the Whispered Name; but in the North is the Last Mountain; but in the West is the Flame That Is Ageless; but in the South is the Wellspring of All Seas):_

_This being a chronicle of the occurrences of the Castle Greenholme on the ninth night of the Worm, and being the truth that was seen and the truth that was not seen,_

_Let it be read that the hand which holds the pen which spills the ink which writes these words is the hand of a Christian man, but a man also who has seen the shuddering tail of the Worm and the gibberous glisten of its Hide,_

_And let the hand write that there is a greater fear than He Who Is in the man's heart, although there is no greater love, and the battle of love and fear is one of a longer missive than this,_

_And let the name of the Seventh Star be the ward for these recountings as the name of He Who Is guards the Word, and let all things be divided between them, and let them rule their heavens and this Earth in glory and in light,_

_And let them save their heavens and this Earth from the Worm._

***

"Jeez. Not rollin' out the welcome mat, are they?"

"Would you?"

Hellboy looked sidelong at his companion.

"Well, we're a damn sight better than whatever's in that castle."

"So's a hole in the head."

There was a storm rolling into the valley, thick and surly, and the castle loomed over the village against the hanging clouds. They kept walking, wrapped in the silence of empty doorways and boarded windows, the mud slick and gritty beneath their feet.

"Still, you'd think maybe a priest or something."

Overhead, thunder grumbled.

***

The castle was decaying but strong, and iron hinges screeched in warning as Hellboy pushed open the doors to the entrance hall. His skin tightened at the smell of the rotten air that settled around them as they walked in, hairs prickling against his arms underneath his coat.

Beside him, Kate gagged.

"Come on. Sun'll be down soon. Big ugly's probably still sleeping somewhere."

"Big ugly's standing right in front of me."

"Wise guy."

"Wise _girl_."

"Wise woman?"

"Makes me sound like some kind of witch."

_In the shadows of roots without end: eyes like dull glass, and the smell of dead grass and bear's blood._

A cockroach crunched under Hellboy's hoof.

"Don't talk to me about witches."

"Touchy."

Their footsteps thudded and tunked across the patches of rug still resting on stone as they wound their way into the kitchens, following the stagnation of the air and the growing rot that ate even at the stones of the castle. The pool of Kate's flashlight grew stronger in the darkness, spraying out across the corpse-moss that carpeted the floor pus-yellow and gleaming.

"You ever think about wearing horseshoes, HB?"

"You ever thi--"

A bubbling, gurgling sound, rising from their feet. The corpse-moss blistered and crawled. 

"RUN!"

Kate was halfway to the door when the stones ripped open.

From the blackness flew a worm, longer than three men, skin slime-ridden and ridged. It screeched and clicked in hunger as it chased her, landing with a wet thud on the floor and undulating in its haste, before:

"Buddy, you come on way too strong!"

And a fist slamming into the slime, sending the worm sliding into the wall.

The jerking beam of Kate's flashlight vanished around a corner as the monster keened and righted itself, teeth gnashing. It dove for Hellboy with a lightning burst of speed and enveloped his arm in its circle maw, grinding and gnawing at the demon skin - but not the demon flesh.

"You got no idea of romance!"

And then the right hand, stone and fury, and the crunching of a carapace crackling underneath the screams of a man who just punched fifteen teeth into his forearm. The worm flailed and screeched, tearing itself off Hellboy's arm and shuddering onto the floor.

"And you gotta learn to play a little gentler."

Hellboy grunted in pain as he drew, aimed - and from that distance, he only needed one shot to splatter the kitchens with the stomach of the worm. 

***

In the doorway of the entrance hall, rain spitting down behind her, Kate looked down at his coat and the seething acid already rotting at the fabric.

"Well, they're definitely not coming out to say goodbye."

***

Underneath the castle, worms shifted and slithered, crawling across each other and gnawing on the tails of their brothers and sisters. 

Underneath the valley, the Worm sleeps.


End file.
